Tag Archives: Security

Hackers turn security camera DVRs into bitcoin miners

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“A computer security instructor says he’s discovered that hackers have been able to infiltrate standard security cameras and then use that hardware to mine for bitcoin, the anonymous digital cryptocurrency.  Johannes Ullrich, a teacher at the computer security SANS Technology Institute, announced last Friday that he found malicious software on Hikvision digital video recorders (DVRs), which are used to record video from surveillance cameras. The virus seems to spread from device to device onto each machine it connects with on the network in question. It also uses the closed-circuit television operators to mine for bitcoin, sending those profits back to the virus’ creator.”

http://rt.com/usa/hackers-security-dvrs-bitcoin-miners-913/

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ATM of the future: No cards, no buttons

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“Diebold has deployed the first of a completely new kind of ATM designed to appeal to gadget-obsessed millennials.  The machine has no physical buttons or card reader. You do nearly all your interactions with it through the cloud using a smartphone. This video demonstrates it.  The new machine was announced in early 2013. but now there is one in operation at Diebold’s own credit union, Diebold Federal Credit Union (DFCU).  Such ATMs should make skimming basically impossible. Customers conduct very little interaction directly with the ATM itself. New, stronger methods of authentication are possible.”

http://www.zdnet.com/atm-of-the-future-no-cards-no-buttons-7000027850/

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MtGox CEO ordered to U.S. for questioning on failed bitcoin exchange

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“The chief executive of Japan’s Mt. Gox, once the world’s leading bitcoin exchange, was ordered to the United States to answer questions related to its U.S. bankruptcy case, filed after the company lost $400 million of customers’ digital currency.  U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan on Tuesday ordered Mark Karpeles to appear on April 17 in Dallas at the offices of Baker & McKenzie, the law firm that represents Mt. Gox.  Mt. Gox customers want its chief executive and majority owner, Mark Karpeles, to explain why the exchange shut down in February and what happened to their 750,000 bitcoins, which the company said were stolen in a computer hacking attack.”

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/02/bitcoin-mtgox-karpeles-idINDEEA3100V20140402

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How does $40M of Gold and Silver Disappear: The Tulving Collapse

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“The Tulving Company, one of the first names many people think of when recommending bullion dealers, shut down on March 3, 2014, and declared bankruptcy a week later. By itself, that would be big news. But by my calculations, when they shut down, they owed upwards of 1,000 customers about $40M.  In August, 2011 they claimed an inventory of silver worth $25,000,000. Today, their inventory is worth less than $50,000, and they may owe as much as $40,000,000. How in the world could that have happened?”

http://www.coinweek.com/bullion-report/tulving-company-collapse/

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Researchers Find NSA Planted Two Spy Tools through RSA

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“Both tools were part of RSA’s BSafe software security package, and both are assumed to have provided back-door access to communications and software encrypted with BSafe tools.  The Reuters news agency reported Monday that a team of academic researchers from several universities, including Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois, has discovered the NSA was involved with the second tool. It’s called an ‘Extended Random’ extension, and it can be used to crack the RSA’s Dual Elliptic Curve random number generator software — the other NSA developed tool that had been withdrawn — tens of thousands of times faster than other methods.”

http://www.toptechnews.com/news/2nd-NSA-Spy-Tool-in-RSA-BSafe/story.xhtml?story_id=13300C848Y22

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Millions of Android downloads infected with cryptocoin-mining code

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“More than a million Android smartphones are mining cryptocoins without the owners’ knowledge, via apps downloaded from Google Play which stealthily incorporate ‘hashing’ software.  Researchers at security company Trend Micro say they have found at least two apps on the Google Play store, Songs and ‘Prized’, which contain code to join any phone that has them to a cryptocoin-mining ‘pool’. Each app has had between 1m and 5m downloads, meaning that up to 10m phones might be affected.  The company also discovered bitcoin-mining code hidden in repackaged versions of Football Manager Handheld and TuneIn Radio outside Google Play.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/27/android-bitcoin-dogecoin-mining-malware

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Google: Gov. requests for user information up 120% over four years

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“Government requests for user information in criminal cases have increased by about 120 percent since we first began publishing these numbers in 2009. Though our number of users has grown throughout the time period, we’re also seeing more and more governments start to exercise their authority to make requests.  We consistently push back against overly broad requests for your personal information, but it’s also important for laws to explicitly protect you from government overreach. That’s why we’re working alongside eight other companies to push for surveillance reform, including more transparency.”

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/transparency-report-requests-for-user.html

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Kraken Bitcoin Exchg. Passes ‘Proof of Reserves’ Cryptographic Audit

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“Bitcoin exchange Kraken has passed a cryptographically verifiable proof of reserves audit with flying colours.  The audit, which was carried out by Stefan Thomas on 11th and 22nd of March, proved that more than 100% of Kraken’s bitcoins are held in reserve.  The process was designed to allow the auditor to verify that the total amount of bitcoins held by Kraken matches the amount required to cover an anonymized set of customer balances.  Thomas said the audit was very strict, but at the same time it maintained ‘absolute privacy’ for customers. He also added that Kraken have expressed interest in conducting regular audits in the future, with different auditors each time.”

http://www.coindesk.com/krakens-audit-proves-holds-100-bitcoins-reserve/

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IRS employee brought home ‘sensitive’ data on 20,000 individuals

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“An Internal Revenue Service employee took home an unencrypted thumb drive containing ‘sensitive’ data about thousands of agency current and former employees in 2007, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Tuesday. The agency stressed that the incident was not a breach of their security system but a single employee erroneously connecting the thumb drive onto a home computer. The data does not contain ‘general taxpayer information or records,’ the IRS said in a statement.”

http://www.politico.com/morningtax/0314/morningtax13340.html

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California DMV Investigates Potential Large-Scale Data Breach

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“California drivers who recently avoided a trip to the DMV — and instead opted to renew licenses and ID cards online — might be in store for a bigger headache than they would have gotten from the long lines they tried to dodge.  The California Department of Motor Vehicles is looking into a potential credit-card data breach related to the online transactions made on its website between August 2013 and January 2014.  The department is ‘performing a forensic review of its systems and seeking information regarding any potential breach from both the external vendor that processes the DMV’s credit-card transactions and the credit-card companies themselves,’ the statement said.”

http://mashable.com/2014/03/23/california-dmv-data-breach/

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